1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a container for holding an elongated article, with both ends thereof supported in the container. The container is formed by folding a sheet and bonding predetermined portions thereof to each other. More particularly, the present invention relates to a container for supporting a cylindrical disposable type syringe, such as dual chamber prefilled syringe containing medicine and comprising a needle disposed at one end thereof and a finger grip projecting from the other end of the body thereof, without the syringe being rotated unexpectedly. Further, during the transport of the containers, they can be easily overlaid one on the other and reliably stored so that syringes can be removed therefrom easily.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a container for stably supporting an elongated article such as a disposable type syringe hitherto known, a supporting base prepared separately from the container is placed in the container.
A packing container is, however, delivered to customers with the container and the supporting base combined with each other in the manufacturing process. Thus, the assembly process is complicated and further, it is expensive to transport and store the container. In addition, in this type of container, an article accommodated in the container is unstable in the lengthwise direction thereof although it can withstand vibrations which occur in the widthwise direction thereof. Hence, the article cannot be supported stably in the container.
Therefore, there is a growing demand for a container which has an integral base section and can be folded from a sheet to a three dimensional state for supporting articles in such a manner that the base section supports an article and the container can be transported and stored conveniently.
In order to comply with the demand, the present applicant proposed folding type containers for supporting vials or ampuls as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Publications No. 6-25115, 6-27542, and 6-14022.
Referring to FIG. 10, the above-described containers have supporting sections 100 and 101 integral with other portions of the container and opposed to each other, and apertures (or supporting windows) 102 and 103 respectively formed on the supporting sections 100 and 101.
The which support windows 102 and 103 supporting a disposable type syringe as shown in FIG. 11 have the following problems.
That is, referring to FIG. 12, in this kind of disposable type syringe (D), a wing-shaped finger grip (E) is formed at the rear end of the cylindrical body 200 thereof. The finger grip (E) comprises a cylindrical portion 201 into which the body 200 is inserted and a rectangular flat portion 202 disposed at the rear end of the cylindrical portion 201. The size of the shorter side 202a of the flat portion 202 is almost equal to the diameter (F) of the cylindrical portion 201 while the size of the long side 202b thereof is greater than the diameter (F) (see FIG. 11). The flat portion 202 is perpendicular to the body 200 and projects upwardly and downwardly from the body 200.
When the syringe (D) is inserted into the window 102 with the longer side 202b of the finger grip (E) vertical, as shown in FIG. 11, there is a possibility that the flat portion 202 will turn downwardly due to an unexpected rotation of the cylindrical body 200 of the syringe (D). As a result, the finger grip (E) is disposed under an upper supporting portion 100a of the supporting section 100. That is, the longer side 202b becomes horizontal as shown in FIG. 13. As a result, the finger grip (E) is caught by the upper supporting strip 100a when the syringe (D) is removed from the container. Thus, the syringe (D) cannot be removed from the container easily.
The conventional container shown in FIG. 10 is used to support ampules and vials. Thus, the length of the supporting portion is small. It is necessary to lengthen the supporting portion of the container for containing disposable type syringes having a finger grip formed at the rear end thereof. There is a demand for the development of a container which can be made flat before syringes are put into the container and then shaped to be three-dimensional with one touch when the syringes are put into the container. However, it is very difficult to make the container three-dimensional with one touch when the long supporting section having the long supporting windows formed thereon is folded and bonded to a bottom wall.